The Danish queen broadcasts January 14 abdication throughout New Yr’s Eve handle dwell on TV, making manner for son, Crown Prince Frederik.
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II will abdicate on January 14 after 52 years on the throne and will likely be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik, she mentioned in her annual New Yr’s speech.
The 83-year-old queen, who took over the throne in 1972, is the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the dying of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
In February, she underwent a profitable again surgical procedure.
“The surgical procedure naturally gave rise to serious about the long run – whether or not the time had come to depart the accountability to the following technology,” she mentioned within the speech on Sunday.
“I’ve determined that now’s the precise time. On 14 January 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I’ll step down as queen of Denmark,” she mentioned.
“I go away the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed the choice in a information launch.
He paid tribute to the monarch, providing a “heartfelt thanks to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless efforts for the Kingdom”.
In Denmark, formal energy resides with the elected parliament and its authorities.
The monarch is anticipated to remain above partisan politics, representing the nation with conventional duties starting from state visits to nationwide day celebrations.
Born in 1940, Margrethe has been one of the crucial fashionable public figures in Denmark.
The 1.82m (6-foot) tall, chain-smoking monarch usually walked the streets of Copenhagen nearly unescorted and gained the admiration of Danes for her heat manners and for her skills as a linguist and designer.
A eager skier, she was a member of a Danish ladies’s air pressure unit as a princess, participating in judo programs and endurance checks within the snow. Margrethe remained robust whilst she grew older.
In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan carrying a army jumpsuit.
As monarch, she crisscrossed the nation and usually visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, the 2 semi-independent territories which are a part of the Danish Realm.
